SAKURA OFTEN WONDERED WHY SASUKE married her and not Naruto instead, since it was so obvious that her husband liked the blonde more.

"Oh. He sent you a letter, did he?" She asked, her voice light and airy. Her expression was pleasant as well, but Naruto knew his friend well enough to know that she was coming to a boiling point on the inside.

The poor blonde gulped warily. They were inside his house and he had just bought a new couch with cupholders for his ramen. It cost him a lot of ryo so he was really hoping she wouldn't accidentally destroy it in her blind rage.

"Ah, well, yes, but it was just about the mission, Sakura-chan..."

"His mission." She echoed.

Naruto started to inch back. "Y-yes..."

"So he sent you a letter. About his stupid mission."

Another gulp. "Uh huh..."

Sakura balled her fists and tried to contain her anger at what she was hearing.

She hadn't seen Sasuke in years. Not since they got married at age twenty and had Sarada soon afterwards. Not even a month after their little angel was born, Sasuke had up and left to take on important missions (it was also his way to repent for all the terrible things he had done).

She understood his reasoning for this, and while she was disappointed when he first informed her of his plans, she accepted it nevertheless and promised to wait for him.

But it had been six years and he hasn't returned home once. Not even for a brief visit.

He'd give gifts though. Like a stuffed teddy, cute toys, and story books for Sarada's birthday whenever he missed it. Or jewelry, kunai, and medical books for every wedding anniversary he wasn't home for.

While Sakura wasn't ungrateful for them, she couldn't help but feel like every present he sent to them was... empty. There were no notes, no 'I love you's, nothing. Just a wrapped gift and that was all. Like he was trying to buy her love. It was infuriating. She wasn't materialistic, she didn't want any of his fancy trinkets—she just wanted him home.

He never even responded to her letters.

How many letters had she sent to him that ended up being unanswered (sometimes she wondered if he even bothered to open them)? How many years had she pleaded for him to come back to her and their daughter, but it never happened?

She didn't send letters every day, but at this point she had to have sent over a hundred now. And she never once received a reply. She spent years agonizing over his silence only to learn now that her husband had finally sent a letter.

To Naruto. Not her.

"Can I see the letter?" She breathed out, forcing herself to stay calm.

Wordlessly, the blonde nodded and handed her an opened letter. She looked down and nearly scoffed at how short it was.

Dobe,

Mission's going well. I'm fine so you can stop bugging me about that.

I'm taking a break in Suna. I'll be on the move soon.

—From, Sasuke

There was no 'how is Sakura?' or 'how is my only child doing?'. It was short and blunt, which wasn't a surprise but Sakura was hoping for a little more. Like maybe an explanation for why he didn't bother to contact anyone for six years until now.

"He replied to your letters but not mine..." She mumbled.

"Er, I'm sure it's nothing, Sakura-chan!" Naruto laughed nervously. "I don't get that many letters from him either."

"What?"

"What?"

"Was this—was this not the only letter you received from him?" She held the letter up for emphasis. "There was more?"

He blinked, surprise etched on his face. "Ah, well, this is the third? Or fourth, I think? Wait, Sakura-chan, are you saying... he never replied to any of yours through these years?"

The misery must have been evident on her face because his eyes widened in realization. "Wha—are you serious?! That damn teme!"

She sat on the couch, feeling defeated and drained. "For the past six years I've been trying to contact him, but nothing... He sends us gifts but... I just want him to talk to me. To come home already."

Naruto's face fell. "I... I knew you were having trouble contacting that jerk, but I never knew it was this bad... I'm sorry Sakura-chan, I should've told him to reply to your letters to ease your worries."

She shook her head. "He shouldn't need to be told to contact his own wife." She said firmly. "I just want to know why... Has he told you when he's coming back?"

Or if he was ever coming back?

He shook his head and Sakura tried to hold on to her crumbling exterior.

Naruto internally panicked. She looked ready to cry and he wasn't very good with crying women. According to his wife, he freaked out too much, but apparently it was a funny sight that made her feel a little better. Sakura was different though.

"U-uh, I'm sure he'll be back... soon?" He squeaked.

Tears started to spill from her jade eyes.

Oh shit, he thought.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she lied, wiping her eyes immediately. She breathed in deeply and sat up a little straighter, trying to give him an obviously false smile. "I'm sorry for getting so emotional on you, Naruto-kun. I think I should be taking my leave now, Sarada's probably getting hungry."

He gave her a concerned look as she began to stand. "Sakura—"

"—I'll see you later, Naruto. Tell Hinata and the kids I said 'hi'."

He watched silently as he left the house and finally sighed when the door shut.

"Damn you teme," he muttered under his breath. "How could you hurt Sakura-chan again, 'ttebayo?"

─────•~❉🌸❉~•─────

In a completely different location, a pair of men dressed in lab coats looked down at a large computer screen that showed complex formulas and a series of data.

"So is it ready?" The man in spectacles asked.

The shorter one nodded, glancing down at the clipboard. "Yes, all the preparations are complete. Get ready to call Dr. Ujiko."

The bespectacled man smirked in satisfaction. "Perfect. Project E.T. shall commence... now."

─────•~❉🌸❉~•─────

Sakura hurried back home. She still needed to make dinner for her and Sarada, and then put her to sleep so she could lay down in her empty bed and be left alone with her troubling thoughts.

She also needed to relieve Kakashi of his babysitting duty...

She had named her beloved sensei as Sarada's godfather much to Naruto's dismay (there was no way she was gonna name him as the godfather, she didn't want her baby to grow up with a ramen addiction or god forbid he teach her Sexy no Justu) and he took the title proudly.

He was invested with Sarada from the get-go, always eager to take care of her whenever Sakura was busy despite his own duties as the village's Rokudaime. She mentioned her concerns about this but he assured her that he was perfectly fine leaving his clones to deal with the paperwork and that he'd rather much be around for her and Sarada.

As much as she was ashamed to admit it, Kakashi was a far better father compared to Sasuke. Sarada, even when she was still a babbling infant, knew that too since there was a time she kept calling Kakashi 'dada'.

Sakura often fretted about the future relationship Sarada would have with her father. The six year old girl was never afraid to voice her low opinions on her father and always told her about how she preferred Kakashi instead much to Sakura's embarrassment.

When she finally reached her abode, she unlocked the door and stepped in.

"Sorry for making you wait, sensei, I ran into Naruto after my shift at the hospital and—"

"—It's fine, Sakura. I don't mind." Kakashi interrupted her. She found the pair of them in the living room. Sarada was reading a book titled The Daimyo of the Land of Noodles (gifted to her by Naruto, naturally) while Kakashi... well, it was obvious what he was reading.

"Mama! Kakashi-san and I were training and I hit ten bullseye in a row!" Sarada exclaimed, putting her book away to dash to her mother.

"That's amazing! When I was your age I couldn't even throw a kunai!" Sakura marveled. Then she smelled something good. "Wait, is that food?"

"I made dinner while you were gone." Kakashi explained, rising up from the couch.

"He made black tea rubbed pork tenderloin," Sarada grinned eagerly. Sakura chuckled, knowing of her daughter's fondness for anything with black tea flavors. She detested tomatoes though, and Sakura had no idea if she was doing it to spite her father since he loved tomatoes.

"Thank you sensei, but you didn't have to do that..." She trailed off apologetically.

The grey haired man scratched the back of his head. "Maa, maa, Sakura-chan, it's really no problem. Sarada-chan here was starving by the end of our training session and, well, it's my duty as godfather to take care of her, isn't it?"

"I guess you're right," she accepted. "Well, I'm famished too. Let's get started with dinner?"

"Yes!" Sarada beamed, rushing to the dining room where everything was already set.

As Sakura walked to her seat, she couldn't help but notice a few details. The shelves were dusted, the floors were clean, and she had no doubts that all her plants have been watered too. Even the ones outside were flourishing.

Honestly, Kakashi made a perfect father and mother.

Kakashi was already helping Sarada cut up the pork by the time she sat down. She watched on fondly as Sarada chirped her thanks and began chowing down.

"Oh!" Sarada suddenly gasped after gulping down a glass of water. "Mama, you got a letter from Gaara-san!"

"That's the Kazekage-sama for you, Sarada," Sakura reminded her.

"But he said that you could call him by his first name," Sarada replied, tilting her head innocently.

"...I didn't realize you were so close to the Kazekage, Sakura." Kakashi said calmly, focusing on his plate.

"We did spend over a year together." Last year, she (along with Sarada because she didn't want to spend more than a day away from her) had ventured off to Sunagakure in order to help the village's hospital get up to date with the current medical practices, while even introducing some new ones. Suna was really good at killing people, but they were god awful at helping them which meant they needed Sakura the most out of all the villages.

Rather than staying at a hotel, Gaara had welcomed both mother and daughter to his home. The Kazekage Clan were basically royalty in Suna, so the amount of property they amassed was impressive. Despite that, the stucco mansion she stayed in was inhabited only by Gaara, his adoptive son Shinki, and Kankero (Temari had long since moved out to live in Konoha).

She remembered when she first met Shinki. He was such an adorable, but oddly mature kid...

Sakura stared down at the young child standing before her. It was Shinki, Gaara's adoptive son. He had a cute baby face with painted cheeks that made her want to pinch them, and his small body was practically dwarfed by the coat of iron sand he wore around his person.

He was only five years old, just like Sarada, but the serious expression he wore on his face made him look like a miniature adult instead. Not even Sarada could accomplish such a stern expression, and she was the most mature child she knew. 

"Uchiha-sama," her jaw nearly dropped at the overly formal title he called her by. "Father is busy with council duties and has entrusted you under my protection while he tends to work. I will not allow anything to happen to you or your daughter."

If Sarada were here, she would be speechless too. After a brief second of silence passed, Sakura swallowed thickly and gave him a sheepish smile.

"Thank you very much, Shinki-kun... Y-you can just call me Sakura though, that title isn't really necessary..."

He stared at her long and hard without saying anything.

"Or you know what? Uchiha-sama sounds good!"

Shinki was respectful to her at the beginning, though that was mostly because she was a friend of his father. It took a while to get the kid to genuinely warm up to her, but after literally nine months, she managed to get a small smile out of him when Gaara was gone one day and the two happened to find themselves in Gaara's beloved greenhouse together.

Sakura had a green thumb, something she inherited from her parents (plus, her name Haruno Sakura literally said it all). It was the one thing she surprisingly shared with Shinki, who got his love for gardening from his dad. The two of them were obsessed with cacti it seemed, since the greenhouse was full of them.

Shinki seemed wary of her presence in the greenhouse—as if she was there to burn the whole place down—but Sakura managed to get the boy to lower his guards when she explained that she had a thing for gardening too and even tried to spout out a few facts she knew about cacti. Her knowledge apparently excited him because then he started to ramble on about how Gaara introduced him to his favorite hobby and that one time Kankuro accidentally got a few needles stuck to his butt when he got too close.

Since then, Shinki was more open to her—just a smidge though. He'd exchange words with her that were more then just the simple greeting and he was more welcome to the idea of gardening with her.

Sarada however, was a different story. Ever since Shinki called her a 'salad', Sarada behaved aloof around him (something that he didn't seem to mind). Despite Sakura's attempts to get the two kids to get along, Shinki would still treat Sarada with indifference while Sarada acted on with spite.

Sakura could remember all the times she and Gaara tried to find ways to get their kids to befriend one another, or at this point, tolerate each other. But it was all for naught and it served to bring the two parents closer instead—which was a result neither of them were bothered with. They confessed their feelings on being single parents (or as close to it in her situation)—they talked about all the insecurities, all the hardships, etc, etc.

She learned that the council had been pushing Gaara to secure an heir, a task that Gaara didn't really care for. It was around that time he met Shinki and decided to adopt him, out of pure love and care for the boy and not because of the demands of the councilmen. He was worried that Shinki might find out about the council's demands for an heir and might get the wrong idea, he didn't want Shinki thinking he adopted him for political reasons.

Sakura suggested that he should tell Shinki about it before he heard it from a secondary source. He was an extremely mature boy, logical, and understanding. She knew he would understand his father's reasoning despite his young age.

In turn, she told Gaara about her issues with Sasuke. The unreplied letters, Sarada detesting her father, and the agonizing wait that seemed to last forever. His solution was... surprising, to say the least.

"Divorce him," Gaara said, blunt and straight to the point.

She almost dropped her cup of calming chamomile tea. She didn't feel so calm anymore.

"W-what? You want me to what?" She spluttered, setting the cup down so she wouldn't accidentally drop it.

"Divorce him." He repeated in that same blunt tone. "I don't mean to be cruel when I say this Sakura, but a father should never be so absent to his own family. And not only that, but he doesn't even bother to contact you."

"Well, he's on a mission so—"

"—There are other shinobi who have been sent away for a decade-long mission yet they still have the time to contact their loved ones." Gaara interrupted, giving her a pointed look. "His neglect towards you tells me he doesn't care about either of you... Sakura, for you and your daughter's sake, divorce him."

Sakura was stunned speechless. Gaara wasn't the only one who she vented to about her feelings—Ino, Hinata, Tenten, Tsunade and Temari to name a few had all gotten earfuls about how aggravated she was towards Sasuke, but neither of them had ever given her a solution so extreme such as divorce.

Gaara sighed at her silence and gave her a soft look. "I'm saying this because I care about you, Sakura, and it's not just because you're Naruto's friend. I've been aware of your kindness for years now and I've seen how you treat Shinki... you were patient with him and you actually got him to open up to you. You're a good mother... and I think you deserve better than waiting your whole life for a man who may never come home."

There was a suggestive look in his eye as he glanced at her, but her gaze was on the table between them.

Sakura wasn't able to get his last words out of her head.

'A man who may never come home'

Was that really a possibility...?

Gaara watched her for several seconds before sighing in defeat. She wasn't getting it at all...

Sakura was finally pulled out of her thoughts by her daughter, who handed her an unopened letter. She thanked her briefly before opening it, the neatly written words on the paper putting a smile to her lips.

"Something wrong?" Kakashi asked, and the aggressive way he was stabbing into his pork with chopsticks went unnoticed to her.

"Oh nothing at all," she smiled. "Gaara-kun was just telling me about his day and asking about the plants he gave me. And Shinki says 'hi' too!"

"Plants...?" Kakashi murmured. "Ah, are you talking about all the cacti you're suddenly owning?" Now he regretted watering them this morning.

She nodded. "Yep, Gaara-kun sent them just last week after I arrived back."

He hummed in response. "How nice of him."

After dinner was over, Sakura quickly went to work with handling the dishes despite Kakashi's offer. She felt bad since he had already done so much, so she just had him make sure Sarada was ready for bed, an easy task since Sarada was the least fussiest six year old ever.

She had just finished cleaning the last dish when Kakashi joined her in the kitchen.

"Sakura."

"Hmm?" She turned to face him as she wiped her hands dry.

He leaned against the doorway, eyeing her with a twinge of concern.

"Your eyes were red when you walked into the house," he noted and Sakura paused for a brief moment.

"Oh." She said lamely. "That's..."

"Were you crying?" He asked her.

"Naruto gave me some news about Sasuke," she mumbled, not directly answering his question because yes, she was crying on the way to her home, but she wasn't necessarily sad. She was angry and for some odd reason her body decided that she should express it through crying and she hated it when her body did that.

She had stopped being sad about Sasuke four years ago; she had stopped weeping about her loneliness and worries and started crying out of frustration and bitterness instead. Every morning when she woke up and realized Sasuke had yet to return home, her chest would fill with disappointment and resignation, and not sadness like it used to.

"What sort of news? Is he okay?" Kakashi asked carefully.

"Oh he's fine," her voice was laced with vexation as she said this. "In fact, Sasuke has actually been sending Naruto letters over the years of his absence. It's not a lot, but it's more compared to what he's given me..."

Which is nothing by the way, she mentally added in a snide voice.

Kakashi's eyes widened by a fraction. "Sasuke has been contacting Naruto?"

"He's only sent him about four letters so far, and Naruto wasn't aware that I never received any so he never bothered to make big news out of it," she explained in a tiresome voice. "I just... I don't know, I'm just so tired..."

She leaned against the sink, placing a hand over her head. She could feel a headache coming in, but she didn't even have the energy to bother healing it anymore.

"Sakura..." He trailed off, not knowing what to say.

With a huff, she tossed the hand towel to the side and stormed out of the kitchen. She could hear Kakashi following after her, and she paused at the table with the one of the only family pictures they had.

It was a sad excuse of one though. There was Sarada's baby picture on one corner, and under it was her daughter at her current age. At the middle was Sasuke during his megalomaniac years, a picture that she had to fold up since he was with Team Taka (of course, that was just a copy and she had the original one framed. Team Taka were Sasuke's only friends and supporters back in his rogue days, she knew they were important to him). Then next to him was her, twenty years old and freshly married, an innocent smile on her face that was oblivious to the hardships to come.

They didn't have a real family picture where they were actually all together, so she had to make do with this, as pitiful as it looked. They had a handful of wedding photos around, but she couldn't bare to look at them. He had looked so happy and so loving, and it kept making her wonder when it had all changed. There was only one photo they had together when Sarada was born, but he had taken the only copy with him for his journey. She wondered if he still had it today.

"I admit, that I got obsessed with sending him as many letters that I could at the beginning and I could understand if that was annoying him, but I barely even talked about myself. I told him all about Sarada, even sent him pictures. But nothing. I worried about his health and safety every day, but all this time he was perfectly fine because he was sending Naruto letters. Why did he never reply to any of mine...? Kakashi-sensei, do you think this marriage is doomed?"

Yes, he wanted to say, but that would probably induce a breakdown. "You and Sasuke should probably discuss all this when he comes home." He said slowly.

She scoffed, remembering Gaara's words to her. "If he comes home."

"He'll come back, Sakura," he assured her. "And when he does, you can give him a good punch to the face. And maybe let Sarada-chan have a go too." He wasn't blind to how much the little girl disliked her dad.

That managed to bring out a small smile to her face. "Yeah," she agreed. "When he gets back from that stupid mission of his I'm gonna—"

She never got to finish explaining what she was going to do, because at that very moment a bright blue wormhole appeared at the corner of the living room and began to suck them in.

It's sudden appearance startled them so much that they were completely overwhelmed. Kakashi could barely make one step back before he was dragged in with a loud yelp. Sakura shrieked as she witnessed his body disappear into the blue matter.

"MAMA?!" She heard her daughter scream as her feet began to lift up from the floor.

"SARADA—STAY BACK!" She shouted, her body flying towards the wormhole.

Then, she was sucked in and the wormhole was gone.

— author's note —

edit (7/27/20): I changed a few things about SasuSaku's relationship like the pictures. I realized I never wrote about them having any wedding photos so I mentioned that they actually had some. There was also a family photo with them when Sarada was just born, but Sasuke took the only copy with them, which led to Sakura having to create a makeshift family photo with the folded up Team Taka picture. Since I thought it was kinda mean of Sakura to fold it up and hide the Taka members, I had her make 2 copies: one for the makeshift photo and the other one put in a picture frame. Team Taka, imo, was important to Sasuke and they actually tried to help him reach his goals while caring about him too. I feel that Sakura, in canon Boruto, should NOT have tried to 'erase' them from that picture. It was kind of a bitch move and I don't wanna write her as a bitch in my book so I changed things a bit.

Kakashi: *acting like the perfect husband and father figure to the Uchiha girls*

Sakura: Man I wish Sasuke was here so he could be like that too...

Gaara: *trying to suggest that she should divorce Sasuke and marry him instead*

Sakura: Omg Sasuke may never come home?!?!?!

Sakura's so used to doing the chasing that she's completely oblivious to when men are chasing her

😔 😔 😔

How old was Shinki when Gaara adopted him? I tried looking it up, but I didn't find much. He had a cute lil baby face in the anime, so I headcanon that he was like five-ish.

Also, Sunagakure doesn't sell hair gel so Boruto!Gaara's hairdo doesn't exist in this book... Honestly, the guys' hairstyles just... went downhill I felt bad for them XD

Did I make Shinki and Sarada sound like six year olds? I mean, I'm sure the way they talk and behave is too advanced in our world's standards and the BNHA too, but I think she's pretty average for the Naruto world. Like forreal, the kids there are ADVANCED. If she seems too mature for a six year old, just know that I'm following the Naruto world's standards.

SasuSaku has a really complicated relationship in here. Sakura's husband has been gone for years and didn't even stay long enough after their daughter was born. Naturally, it's enough to make Sakura distraught. She has the patience of a saint though, but the waiting game's beginning to lose it's novelty. She's conflicted because a part of her feels selfish for wanting him back home so badly ("I should just be happy with what I have!") and the other part of her just wants her goddamn husband and father of her child back ("dammit, I don't want ur gifts, I just want you contact me or better yet, GET UR ASS BACK HOME ALREADY!!!"). Like seriously, what would u do if you marry this guy you love and give birth to his child in the same year, but right after that, he leaves to go on a mission and only sends u gifts and completely disregards ur letters while also replying to someone else's. And imagine dealing with that for SIX YEARS.

Her patience is wearing thin, and soon, she's gonna explode.

The flashback scene of Sakura's interaction with Shinki was inspired by this artwork made by distant-voice from tumblr:

https://66.media.tumblr.com/aecf83068b9a8197e4d1f9da370e19a5/3390204b8410f820-2a/s1280x1920/b94f40bb954d1b74ceca95500f26394494df2528.png